Westport, Norwalk residents pick up litter

By STEVE KOBAKHour Staff Writer

Published 4:45 pm, Saturday, April 21, 2012

Photo: (C)2011, The Hour Newspapers, all rights reserved

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Stamford residents Chad Well er and Adrianna Lugo clean up along East Main St as part of the East Side Neighborhood Clean Up and Planting event Saturday morning sponsored by the East Side Partnership and Domus.

Stamford residents Chad Well er and Adrianna Lugo clean up along East Main St as part of the East Side Neighborhood Clean Up and Planting event Saturday morning sponsored by the East Side Partnership and

WESTPORT -- The litter removal effort was massive on Saturday, and Westport Beautification Committee Chairwoman Angela Trucks wants an even higher rate of participation next year.

The beautification committee and the Westport Parks and Recreation Department "Green Up" effort featured contributions from about 50 civic organizations, and Trucks would like to see neighbors band together and clean their neighborhoods to expand the effort.

"That's really how we'd like to expand the program to make it a truly townwide event," she said.

Aside from Westport, a variety of town departments and civic groups sponsored clean-up efforts in Norwalk, Stamford, Wilton and other municipalities as part of Earth Day.

The amount of litter that was removed from various locations in Westport was not immediately calculated.

"A lot of people take their (trash) bags directly to the dump," said Nancy Carr, former chairwoman of the Westport Beautification Committee. "So, there's no way to know the exact amount of debris that was removed."

Trucks said the most polluted spots were areas close to I-95. The state Department of Transportation maintains the areas but it is difficult for the DOT to continually pick up the trash, Trucks said.

Trucks, who helped clean the Jessup Green, said cigarette butts were the most common form of litter that she encountered during the litter removal effort.

"It's hard to believe so many people still smoke," she said.

Meanwhile, Diane Cece did not have as much luck in amassing people for the Eastern Norwalk Neighborhood Association cleanup.

"There's a slow turnout," she said. "I don't know if it's because of spring break or what's going on."

Cece said there was "a distinct reduction" in discarded cigarette butts for the past two years.

"It's really, really noticeable," she said.

Cece said "sign pollution" is the newest litter problem, as people fail to discard old signs that are tacked up on telephone poles or placed on front lawns.